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Monthly Archives: January 2011

While talking about Pokémon with my co-workers, Koffing and his evolution Weezing came up in the conversation. We joked about a theoretical evolution named “Choking” or “Hacking” and – being the fanboy I am – I simply had to draw it. I decided to go with the name “Choking” instead of “Hacking” as hacking might imply a relation to data or computers and we couldn’t have that!

As posted on several other blogs, a rumour is going around that Nintendo will release a second Pokémon Stadium / Colosseum / Battle Revolution game on the Wii, complete with a multiplayer battle mode and a single-player story mode similar to the Nintendo Gamecube games. Rumour or not, if they do plan on releasing a new Stadium-style game on Wii there are a few items on my wishlist that I really feel are key to a successful Pokémon console adventure (in no particular order).

1. Rental Pokémon
The game needs to have a full library of rental Pokémon, just like the N64 games. Hardcore fans will no-doubt be able to import their own teams from their DS games, but what about everyone else? I want my other gamer friends who don’t have the DS game to still be able to battle with me, and I don’t want any of these crappy “Battle Passes” with 6 pre-selected Pokémon and some lame-ass, random trainer. What fun is that?

2. Gym Leader Castle
The game should let you battle 3D versions of the Unova Region’s leaders (and possibly other regions’ as well) just like the N64 games. If the console games had any creativity in their character design I wouldn’t be so harsh, but none of the throwaway characters I’ve seen so far have been anywhere near as interesting or well-designed as those introduced in the main series. I miss the days when the console games paid tribute to the handheld one – it’s the whole reason I even consider buying the console games in the first place!

3. Trainer School & Battle Lessons
The school / academy aspect of the series needs to return. There was nothing cooler than being taught advanced combos through live battles rather than just through text-boxes or online message boards. I still remember the battle with a rental Graveler teaching me the Defense Curl + Rollout combo from Stadium 2. Such good times… Hundreds more combos have been introduced since then and with all-new players entering the scene, there’s no reason to leave this feature out again.

4. Physical Contact
Pokémon should make contact for physical attacks. I don’t care if the game needs a teen rating. On the DS they may be able to blame technical limitations, but these weak-sause cut-away attack scenes are pathetic on a 3D console game. Pikachu is allowed to headbutt other Pokémon in the anime, which is clearly aimed at children, so why can’t he do it in the games? Fix that shit!

5. Return of the Battle Frontier
Whether they call it the Battle Frontier or replace it with the new “Battle Subway” doesn’t matter, I just want something similar within the console games and with just as much focus on Triple and Rotation Battles as the other types. Oh, and there should obviously be multiplayer options – both competitive and co-operative. Different “cups” or themes would also be appreciated – things like the “Tiny Cup” for physically small monsters of the “Heavy Cup” for big ones. This would make the aforementioned rental Pokémon even more useful.

6. Pokémon Box Storage & Transfer
This feature was in the original N64 games and was extremely useful. As Nintendo is well-aware, fans of the series often purchase more than one version of the game. I can’t speak for everyone, but when the inevitable Pokémon Grey comes out, I plan to treat it as a replacement for Black/White. The issue then becomes getting all my monsters from one cartridge into another so I can benifit from all my hard work. Sure I can manually trade them over, but with 649 different characters available that’s an extremely time consuming investment. I just don’t understand why this feature has not appeared in any games since the N64, with all console Pokemon games released since explicitly forbidding people from moving monsters between games. Why Nintendo? Why?!

7. Constant Weather Effects
In every single main-series Pokémon game to date, weather effects have not been constant throughout the battle. Between turns the game will remind you that it’s raining or sunny or snowing and show a quick animation, but that’s it – there is no snow, rain, or sun animation during the actual attacks or character selection phases. I know that the Wii isn’t as powerful as the PS3 or Xbox 360, but it’s still a very capable system and there is absolutely no reason it can’t display the snow/rain/sandstorm/sun/hail on a consistent basis. What is this, the original Gameboy?

8. Actual Wild Pokémon
I want to be able to go into a field or patch of grass, and actually see wild Pokémon running around. I want to be able to run up to one and initiate a wild Pokémon battle with it. I want to have double or triple battles occurring automatically based of the proximity of other wild monsters in the area when the battle starts. I want that wild Caterpie I’m attacking to “call friends” and have other Caterpie (or maybe even a Butterfree!) come to fight by it’s side. Can you imagine the experience gain from a string of battles this way? Abilities like “Stench” could prevent such chains, while “Sweet Scent” could increase them (for example). There are so many mechanics that could come into play, and the thrill of actually seeing a shiny in the wild could not be rivaled.

9. Safari Zone for DS Games
I think it would be totally awesome if there were a special area in the game only accessibly by connecting your DS to the Wii and importing your trainer. This area would function like a Safari Zone or Great Marsh but much larger, having several different types of environments and being packed with monsters from the older games. The Pokémon may have different attacks than they normally would or may be holding rare items, but the point would be that you could catch a large amount of the older Pokémon in a current-gen game – something Black & White do not currently allow.

Those are all my suggestions for this potential new game. They’ll probably never see the light of day, but it’s fun to dream – no? What do you think?